Functioning of Uman District Court in Context of Socio-Political Realities of the Last Quarter of the 19th – Early 20th Century
Abstract
The purpose of the research paper is to show the judicial and investigative practice of the Uman District Court (1880-1919) through a focus on published information about it in the newspapers of Kyiv gubernia of the last quarter of the 19th – early 20th century and to identify the criteria for selecting such information.
The scientific novelty. Based on the information about the Uman District Court, found in the gubernia newspapers ‘Zarya’, ‘Trud’, ‘Kievskoe Slovo’, and ‘Kievlyanin’, its judicial and investigative practice is comprehensively presented, which made it possible to clarify the criteria for selecting information for publications in the periodical press. It is shown that the functioning of the judicial authority reflected the socio-political realities of the life of that time society.
Conclusions. It has been found out that newspapers published information on acute issues (legal actions of the chynsh (pol. czynsz) peasants in the 1880s), on procedural issues of judicial practice at the initial stage of the formation of the district court (1880-1884), when the interaction between the bar, the prosecutor’s office, and jurors was being established.
The pages of the periodical press covered information on court cases over such common phenomena as fraud, beatings, and thefts. The press did not ignore court cases over torture, sexual deviations, murders for adultery, infidelity, and financial insolvency. Court cases involving representatives of various social classes and groups, as well as wealthy and influential persons, garnered significant interest.
The public was also informed about those court cases where jurors (‘public conscience’) made mistakes and violated the petitions for rehearing court verdicts. By publishing materials about trials for arson as revenge and deliberate arson of one’s property to obtain insurance, the periodical press responded to the proliferation of such deleterious phenomena in Uman region at the beginning of the 20th century.
Consequently, to select information from the practice of the Uman District Court for its publication, the gubernia newspapers presumably used the following criteria: its topicality, novelty of procedural practice, high-profile matter, personalistic dimension (the individuals involved in court proceedings), and prevalence of criminal acts.
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